Director - National Sales Rep Network & Specification

IKIO USA is hiring a commercial builder who can turn manufacturer-representative relationships into a governed, measurable national channel. The role will focus on recruiting, contracting, activating, and performance-managing high-quality rep agencies while building a specification pipeline that creates earlier project influence and protects IKIO through bid, substitution, award, and fulfillment.

The successful leader must know which agencies actually influence specifiers, distributors, electrical contractors, ESCOs, architects/engineers, and end users in each market—and be able to convert those relationships into productive coverage, active specifications, qualified opportunities, and revenue.

Core Accountabilities

• Design IKIO’s national territory and agency architecture, prioritizing high-value markets and avoiding overlapping or unproductive coverage.

• Recruit agencies through direct industry access and established relationships; assess agency principals, seller depth, technical capability, succession, distributor/contractor reach, and line-card conflicts.

• Negotiate and recommend agency appointments, territory changes, project-registration rules, commission splits, account exclusions, and performance expectations within approved legal/commercial boundaries.

• Onboard agencies with product/application training, target-account plans, specification objectives, samples, commercial rules, and clear first-90-day activation milestones.

• Build a national specification system covering basis-of-design positions, approved alternates, substitutions, project registration, competitive threats, expected channel route, next decision, and conversion status.

• Run disciplined quarterly business reviews and replace or reset non-producing coverage; a signed rep agreement is not treated as activated coverage.

• Create coordinated pull-through with national accounts, distribution, electrical contractors, applications, and product teams without double-counting revenue or creating account conflict.

• Institutionalize relationship knowledge in CRM and company systems so IKIO does not remain dependent on one person’s informal network.

• Build future regional specification/account-development support only as pipeline, agency productivity, and coverage needs justify the headcount.

Candidate Profile

• Deep current relationships with manufacturer-rep principals, senior sellers, specifiers, distribution leaders, electrical contractors, and/or project influencers across multiple U.S. markets.

• Demonstrated history of building, recruiting, managing, or materially improving rep networks—not merely servicing inherited agencies.

• Strong judgment on line-card conflict, exclusivity, house/national accounts, project registration, commission splits, distributor pull-through, and rep performance.

• Working understanding of lighting/electrical project flow from specification and alternate approval through bid, contractor, distributor, order, and closeout.

• Commercial discipline around pipeline qualification, gross margin, collections, and forecast—not activity for activity’s sake.

• Ability to recruit, coach, and multiply younger 3-7 year commercial talent so relationships become company assets.

• Comfort operating cross-functionally with technical/applications, finance, legal, operations, product, and manufacturing teams.